Two weeks ago, I posed the idea of  doing a week-long Behind The Blog series in my post about my 5 Takeaways from BlogPodium and was thrilled to receive emails from fellow bloggers who wanted to participate.

What is Behind The Blog? A week-long community feature where 2-3 bloggers share completely honest run downs of their typical day.

Why? To pop the bubble of mystery that surrounds bloggers; What do we really do? What do we eat for breakfast? What does our day normally look like?

Today is the first day of this week-long feature. Along with myself, Brittany from mydailyrandomness.com will be posting her answers. Be sure to check out the other bloggers involved at the bottom of this post!

1) Be honest: What time do you wake up and what’s a typical breakfast?

Pictured: Steel-cut oats from my Instagram

I wake up (naturally) between 8:00 am and 8:30 am and make myself one of the following for breakfast, all of which are accompanied by a piping large mug of coffee:

• Steel cut oats with bananas, maple syrup and walnuts (if it’s cold and I have a half hour to wait)
• Scrambled eggs, an English muffin and 2 strips of bacon (if I did a power yoga class the night before)
• Shreddies or Oat Squares with Raspberries and soy milk (typical go-to)

2) Do you have a day job? If so, what do you do? How do you find the balance between blogging and work? What are the pros and cons? – If blogging your full-time gig, please explain how that came to be.

365 Days of Type | Personal Design Project

VOA: Illustration, Writing & Design for my Thesis project

TD Aeroplan Art Direction

Illustrations for Molson Canadian for Osheaga 2012

Yes, I do have a day-job, though it’s loosely related and co-exists with blogging and is sometimes my night-job. I’m a freelance illustrator/Art Director/designer, I help design Mozilla’s Firefox Operating System and am a contributing writer for Design*Sponge and Computer Arts Magazine most of the time, and a blogger the remainder of time.

Because I’m a freelancer, I work from home which allows me to work on many things at once-including blogging. I get to construct my own schedule and organize my own time which is a huge pro. As for cons, sometimes it’s tough to focus and work on just one. I’m an ADD creative and work best when I can bounce around from one thing to the next, hour by hour, but sometimes structure would be beneficial-as would having an excuse to get out of the house. I go for a lot of walks, attend yoga and try to get to industry events when I can, but some days, I’m in my home for 24 hours at a time and it can lead to going a bit stir-crazy.

3) Where did you grow up (what city/town, do you have siblings, can you share any stories about your upbringing)? And where do you currently reside?

Pictured from left to right: me, my eldest sister, my other sister and my cousin, crusin’ the mean streets of Milton circa 1992

I grew up in Milton, Ontario, within arms reach of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. I’m half Italian and half Slovakian so I was never without tons of food and family. My two older sisters live in Kitchener and Toronto and my parents and their chubby tabby Beatrice live just 2 blocks from me-on the same street I grew up on.  I was an extroverted, energetic, impatient and fearless kid who lacked (and still lacks) the ability to be embarrassed. I did karate, had imaginary pets and worked at the local library from age 13 to 19. I was a maniac of a child and still remain some form of crazy now.

My nickname in grade-school was “Psycho Sabrina Smelko”. I didn’t know I was strange then, but looking back, man I was a weirdo. Maybe this is better left unsaid, but to paint you a picture of how I was in grade-school; at the beginning of most recesses up to grade 7, I’d do a kart wheel that ended in a collapse that I claimed would transport me into another realm. I’d lie on the grass, dead still, eyes shut, for the entire duration of recess until the bell rang which would prompt me to somersault “back to reality”. I cant believe I sacrificed so many recesses to stare at the back of my eyelids. Along with being a weirdo, I was impatient and never satisfied (and still am).

Like any teenager, I didn’t like my home town of Milton when I was younger, but I’ve come to fall in love with it. Growing up, it had a population of around 25,000 but by my late teens, the population tripled. With it came a movie theater, more restaurants and shops, bowling, yoga studios etc., which was a much needed change for my teen self’s sanity. Now Milton has a population of around 100,000 and I currently live here, having moved back after living in Mississauga and Toronto.

4) Outline your average, typical day. Be as transparent as possible.

Pictured: My Moleskine notebook

As outlined in this post on how to be productive when working from home:

• 8:00 am: Wake up naturally
• 8:00 – 8:15: Check emails in bed. I know it’s not the healthiest habit; I’ve been trying to at least begrudgingly move to the couch to check my phone!
• 8:30 am: Get dressed and make coffee. In no particular order. Though I work from home, I find getting ready and getting dressed (in comfy clothes only) makes a big difference in my productivity.
• 8:30-9:00 am: Blog, read blogs, browse the internet, Buffer my social media for the week, get my brain inspired and warmed up.
• 9:00 – 12 noon: Work on real jobs (Mozilla work and freelance projects I have on the go) interchangeably; This job for 30 mins, back to that job for 40, back to this job for 15 etc.
• 12 – 2:00pm: Break. I take a leisurely lunch, go for a walk, run errands, dink around the house and garden etc.
• 2 – 5pm: Work on real jobs.
• 5 – 8pm: On days my better half and I don’t go to yoga, we eat around 5:30-6 followed by an after-dinner walk around town. On days we do go to yoga, we prepare a simply dinner to finish making when we get home, then we leave around 6:45 for the 7pm class and eat when we get home around 8:30.
• 8 – 11pm: Work on personal projects. Includes blogging, illustrating for myself etc. The dream-job stuff.
• 11 – 12: We typically re-convene and watch a Wife Swap or Tosh.0 if I’m being completely honest. No judgy.
• 12 midnight: Bedtime!

5) What’s your dream job/career? How are you working towards that?

Pictured: Me with my Morning, Dear print. Photo by Wild and Light

I feel lucky enough to say I’m already doing something I love and dreamed of doing as a kid. I get paid to make pretty things, which is very awesome. My dream at this stage is working towards producing more tangible product and consulting on home goods, products, apparel, etc.

I’m currently building up my  online Hands and Hustle Storenvy and exploring printing my illustrations onto fabric and am exhibiting a hand-made product (which I’ll keep a secret for now) for a MADE exhibition this coming winter curated by Julia Breckenreid.

In time, I’d love to be a consultant or Art Director for product collections/lines like Joy Cho does for Target. Home goods, apparel, fabrics etc.

6) What would be your dream dinner-party guest-list? Explain why you chose each person.

James Kicinski McCoy to pick her brain on blogging and her career, Jillian Harris for conversion, shop-talk and fun, Kristin Wiig for obvious reasons, Daniel Tosh for comedic relief if it got awkward, and The Property Brothers, Jonathan Scott and Drew Scott.

7) What’s one thing you’d like to start, one thing you’d like to stop, and one thing you’d like to continue.

(pictured: Bakasana or Crow Pose. Photo by Wild and Light)

Start getting out there and really pursuing my dreams, whole hog. I do take my business and dreams seriously, but one can always push more.

Stop doubting myself. It doesn’t happen a lot, but here and there when self-doubt creeps in, it’s hard to kick.

Continue making my yoga practice a priority.

8) What’s your current obsession?

Textiles, tapestries and weavings, like the ones pictured above made by Hazel and Hunter. Any tangible material, such as SUNO NY’s apparel (below).

9) Link to 5 websites/blog you can’t go a week without?

I can’t limit it to 5, so here’s 7. Deal with it! Breaking my own rules!

Hype Machine, Brit + Co, The Everygirl,  Design Milk, BlogLovin’ (mine), Design*Sponge, Apartment Therapy.

10) Tag and mention 1 blogger who you’d like to partake in this feature.

Christina from City Loveee!

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Below is a list of other bloggers involved in this Behind The Blog series and the posting schedule. Be sure to visit them as well-especially on the corresponding days that they’ll be publishing their answers/posts!

Monday September 29th
Sabrina Smelko (yours truly) | handsandhustle.com
Brittany | mydailyrandomness.com

Tuesday September 30th
Brittany | Gallerynoeight.com
Kelly | glitterdiaries.ca
Shawn Lovering | wildandlight.com

Wednesday October 1st
The Party Girl | thepartygirl.ca
Renee | reneemleblanc.com

Thursday October 2nd
Katie Rose | wildrosebuds.com
Hilary Ramsay | houseofher.weebly.com

Friday October 3rd
Jordana | WhiteCabana.com
Vanessa/Decor Happy | www.vanessafrancis.com/blog